And I don't think that a job makes a person special, why would it? It's just a job. I work on a hot market, someone else does not - that doesn't make any of us special people. To me, a special person is distinguished by much more than just working on a hot market.
I don't even know how much money the people who I think are special have or make, and don't care about it at all. Few of the best programmers I know make nearly zero money (of course, by choice). They're special by themselves, not because of their money.
Should I lie about the market so you don't think I feel special even if I repeat like 10 times it doesn't make me special, or what?
Well, a job takes up roughly 1/3 of our working lives (minus 2/3 for sleep (8hrs) and "leisure" (8hrs)), so I would say that it defines us very much, and it's a lot more than "just a job". A "job" is stacking shelves at Tesco or driving lorries for Amazon. Tech is a career (and a lifestyle, given how much it seeps into one's personal life e.g. watching Defcon before bed, I doubt lorry drives watch Lorrycon talks before bed...)
As for your other point, fair enough, point taken.
>"you're not special"
and you replied with
>"they literally begged me to work for them"
>"they just try to make their company look like the best place while apologizing profusely for their limited budget"
Do you not see how your 2 comments here give off the impression that you feel special? Maybe you don't feel special (like you explicitly say), but those two comments especially give a strong impression that you do feel special.
EDIT: I continued reading down this thread and I found a comment chain that perfectly encapsulates the "feeling special" observation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31336614
>"Well said. Working in tech is like writing a book with 50 people instead of 1."